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AVER 


tEx  iGtbris 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


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Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
(in  ioi  Si  vmour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


THE  WEBSTER  STATUE. 


 lilii 


r   BALL  SCULPOR 


□Nl  INE.N7AL  BANK  NOTE  CO  NY. 


BRONZE  STATUE  OF  DANIEL  WEBSTER 


ERECTED     IN    CENTRAL    PARK.     NEW  YORK,     JULY     41"  1876 


■ 


W.  BURN  HAM . 


PROCEEDINGS 


INAUGURATION   OF   THE  STATUE 


OF 


DANIEL  WEBSTEE, 


ERECTED  IN  THE  CENTRAL  PARK,  NEW  YORK 

JULY  FOURTH,  1876, 


J? 


By  GORDON  W.  BTIRNHAM, 


AND  BY  HIM  PRESENTED  TO  THE  CITY,  NOVEMBER  TWENTY-FIFTH,  1876. 


NEW  YORK: 
D.   APPLE TON    AND  COMPANY 
MDCCCLXXVT. 


f 


THE  "WEBSTER  STATUE. 


Daniel  Webster  was  born  in  Salisbury,  New  Hamp- 
shire, on  the  18th  day  of  January,  1782,  and  died  in 
Marshfield,  Massachusetts,  on  the  24th  day  of  October, 
1852. 

His  life  was  devoted  to  the  public  service,  and  no 
man's  service  was  greater.  He  was  the  expounder  and 
defender  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States.  His 
ability  and  eloquence  postponed  the  conflict  which  threat- 
ened its  ruin ;  and  he,  more  than  any  other  man,  may 
be  said  to  have  created  the  sentiment  of  affectionate 
attachment  to  the  Constitution  and  the  Union  it  estab- 
lished, which  carried  the  nation  safely  through  that  ter- 


6 


rible  trial  of  its  strength  and  power.  First  in  that  war 
of  opinion  out  of  which  the  true  principles  of  the 
American  Government  came,  as  though  tried  by  fire — 
tirst  in  the  peaceful  triumphs  of  the  cabinet,  the  Senate, 
and  the  forum,  those  victories  of  peace  no  less  renowned 
than  war — if  any  man's  name  and  memory  deserve  to 
be  cherished  and  honored  by  every  American  citizen, 
they  are  those  of  Daniel  Webster. 

Sharing  in  this  estimate  of  the  great  statesman's 
character,  and  his  relation  to  the  history  of  the  whole 
country,  Mr.  Gordon  Webster  Burkham,  a  native  of 
New  England,  and  a  citizen  of  New  York,  conceived  the 
idea  of  a  statue,  to  be  erected  in  the  chief  city  of 
America,  which  should  preserve  and  transmit  to  future 
generations  the  characteristic  form  and  features  of  the 
man,  and  stand  as  a  lasting  memorial  of  his  work. 

Mr.  Burnham's  suggestions  and  offers  to  those  who 
were  most  likely  to  promote  such  a  design,  although 
cordially  approved  and  gratefully  recognized,  produced 

■ 

no  substantial  result  during  many  years ;  and,  in  1873, 


7 


he  determined  to  cany  out  his  original  purpose  in  his 
own  way,  and  at  his  own  expense. 

After  some  preliminary  conferences*  with  the  Depart- 
ment of  Public  Parks,  in  which  he  indicated  his  desire 
to  secure  an  appropriate  site  for  the  statue  in  the  Cen- 
tral Park,  he  addressed  the  following  letter  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board : 

Hexry  G.  Stebbixs,  Esq., 

President  of  the  Department  of  Public  Parks. 

Dear  Sir  :  In  accordance  with  the  suggestions  heretofore  made  in 
conversation  with  your  predecessor,  Mr.  Wales,  and  yourself,  I  respect- 
fully offer  for  the  Central  Park  a  bronze  statue  of  Daxiel  Webster,  of 
colossal  size,  with  an  appropriate  granite  pedestal,  the  whole  work  to 
be  executed  by  the  best  artist  in  a  manner  altogether  worthy  the 
grandeur  of  the  subject  and  the  conspicuous  position  it  is  designed  to 
occupy  at  the  lower  entrance  to  the  Mall. 

This  position,  proposed  by  Mr.  President  Wales,  and  cordially  ap- 
proved by  yourself  and  other  gentlemen  of  no  less  exceUent  taste  and 
judgment,  will  exactly  suit  my  purpose  in  devoting  so  large  a  sum 
of  money  as  will  be  required  to  adorn  the  Park,  and  to  honor  the 


8 

memory  of  one  of  America's  noblest  sons;  whose  patriotic  eloquence, 
devoted  to  the  defence  of  her  institutions  during  his  life,  will  continue 
to  animate  and  inspire  to  the  latest  time  that  sentiment  of  "Liberty 
and  Union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable/'  which  has  saved 
the  nation,  and  will  continue  to  protect  it. 

I  trust  that  my  offer  to  place  this  statue  on  the  site  proposed  will 
meet  the  speedy  accej)tance  of  your  Department,  in  order  that  the 
work  may  be  duly  completed  by  the  Fourth  of  July,  1876 — the  Cen- 
tennial of  American  Independence. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  with  great  respect, 

Your  obedient  servant, 

Gordon  W.  Burnham. 

No.  128  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York,  July  25,  1874. 

This  letter  found  its  way  to  the  press,  and  was  copied 
and  applauded  with  enthusiasm  all  over  the  country,  as 
well  as  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The  public  opinion 
thus  warmly  expressed  finally  silenced  all  doubts,  re- 
moved all  technical  and  official  objections,  and  left  Mr. 
Burnham  free  to  complete  his  work. 

He  immediately  gave  the  order  for  the  statue  to  Mr. 


9 


Thomas  Ball,  of  Florence,  Italy,  an  artist  of  distinguished 
merit,  whose  previous  representations  of  Mr.  Webster  in 
painting  and  sculpture  had  won  for  their  author  an  ex- 
alted reputation.  Mr.  Burnham  has  not  been  disappointed 
in  his  expectation  that  Mr.  Ball  would  crown  the  labors 
and  studies  of  a  lifetime  in  a  portrait-statue  worthy  of 
its  noble  subject,  alike  in  person  and  character  one  of 
the  greatest  of  the  sons  of  men. 

It  was  intended  that  the  statue  should  be  completed 
in  time  for  its  inauguration  on  the  National  Birthday, 
the  Centennial  Anniversary  of  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, Fourth  of  July,  1876,  and  the  contracts  were 
framed  accordingly  with  all  the  parties  engaged  in  the 
work ;  but  the  delays  and  disappointments  incident  to  all 
such  operations  compelled  postponements,  from  time  to 
time,  until  the  25th  of  November,  the  great  local  anni- 
versary of  New  York,  Evacuation-Day. 

The  ceremony  of  inauguration  took  place  on  that  day, 
at  two  o'clock.  The  assembly  was  called  to  order  by 
President  William  R.  Maetix,  who  spoke  as  follows : 


10 


"  To-day,  in  the  chief  city  of  his  country,  we  place 
on  a  pedestal  of  granite,  standing  on  the  basic  rock,  the 
statue  of  the  man  whose  learning  and  eloquence  did  so 
much  to  establish  the  principles  of  the  Constitution  on 
enduring  foundations — did  so  much  to  fix  in  every  heart 
that  love  for  and  faith  in  the  Union  which,  like  love  and 
faith  always,  in  the  crisis,  were  our  salvation. 

"  Surmounting  all  discord  of  interests  and  opinions, 
through  the  blood  of  the  Revolution,  a  century  ago,  our 
fathers  laid  the  foundations  of  the  Republic. 

"  In  the  middle  of  the  century  these  foundations  were 
opened,  fundamental  principles  were  agitated  anew,  were 
resettled,  and  planted  in  the  hearts  of  the  people.  In 
our  day,  they  have  survived  the  severest  tests  to  which 
Liberty  and  Union  could  have  been  subjected.  They 
have  proved  the  strongest  of  all  the  forces,  natural  and 
moral,  by  which  we  are  surrounded. 

"  Through  this  course  of  our  history  there  was  room, 
there'  was  need,  for  a  man — for  many  men,  but  for  one 
supremely  eminent — for  the  duty  of  standing  between 


11 


♦ 


the  past  and  the  future,  between  the  two  wars — the  first 
successful  to  build  up,  the  second  failing  to  overthrow ; 
need  of  a  man  with  heart  large  enough  to  embrace  all, 
mind  large  enough  to  comprehend  all,  and,  upon  all 
principles  and  all  duties  of  our  pride  and  our  hopes,  to 
build  the  temple  and  within  it  the  altar  of  the  country, 
before  which  all  hearts  are  one,  and  all  discordant  in- 
terests disappear. 

"  It  is  the  noble  acts  of  such  a  man  that  we  to-day 
commemorate." 

Mr.  Gordon  W.  Burj^ham  was  then  introduced,  and 
thus  addressed  the  Mayor : 

"  Mr.  Mayor  :  Having  always  been  a  great  admirer 
of  Mr.  Webster,  and  having  a  strong  desire  that  some- 
thing should  be  done  to  perpetuate  his  memory,  I  have 
caused  this  statue  to  be  erected,  which  I  trust  may  be 
as  enduring  as  his  fame,  and  the  granite  upon  which  it 
stands.    I  now  have  the  pleasure,  through  you,  of  pre- 


12 


senting  this  statue  of  Daniel  Webster,  with  its  pedestal, 
to  the  city  of  New  York.  I  commit  it  to  your  guar- 
dianship, trusting  that  it  may  be  faithfully  cared  for  and 
protected  in  all  time  to  come." 

The  statue  was  then  unveiled  by  Thomas  Brownell 
Burnham,  the  donor's  youngest  son. 

Mayor  Wickiiam,  in  accepting  the  gift,  said : 

"  Mr.  Burnham  and  Gentlemen  :  The  city  of  New 
York  accepts  this  statue  with  many  acknowledgments 
for  the  munificence  and  public  spirit  which  are  shown 
now,  not  for  the  first  time,  by  the  donor,  and  with  pro- 
found regard  and  reverence  for  the  remarkable  man 
whose  features  and  figure  it  so  admirably  reproduces. 
The  time  is  well  chosen  for  reminding  the  people  of  all 
these  United  States,  as  this  image  does,  of  the  greatness 
of  the  intellect  and  resources  of  Daniel  Webster,  and  of 
the  glorious  use  to  which  he  put  them  in  the  public 
service.    In  the  midst  of  the  confusion  made  by  con- 


»• 


13 

tending  parties,  who  struggle  now  for  power  in  the  Re- 
public, this  monument  to  the  most  illustrious  of  the  sons 
of  lew  England  is  eloquent  of  the  moderation,  the 
wisdom,  and  the  abounding  patriotism  of  his  counsels, 
which  helped  to  guide  the  country  through  so  many 
dangers  now  happily  passed.  And,  in  the  new  perils  to 
which  constitutional  government  is  to-day  exposed,  to 
turn  the  thoughts  of  men  again  to  the  great  expounder 
of  the  Constitution  himself,  as  these  impressive  proceed- 
ings will  turn  them,  cannot  but  be  productive  of  good 
influences.  The  city  will  guard  and  keep  this  noble  gift 
with  watchful  care,  that  generations  yet  to  come  may 
learn  the  lessons  taught  by  Webster." 

President  Martin  then  introduced  Hon.  William  M. 
Evarts,  who  delivered  the  following  address  : 

"  Mr.  Mayor  aid  Fellow-Citizexs  :  I  congratulate 
you,  Mr.  Burnham,  upon  the  prosperous  execution  of  a 
noble  purpose.    You  did  me  the  honor,  in  meditating 


14 


this  grand  gift  to  the  city  and  to  the  country,  to  ask 
my  concurrence  in  this  munificent  act.  I  know  that  it 
proceeded,  in  your  intention,  from  nothing  but  admiration 
of  Mr.  Webster,  because  he  was  a  great  servant  of  his 
country,  and  from  your  patriotism,  that  desired  to  per- 
petuate his  influence  in  a  form  that  should  be  as  endur- 
ing and  as  eloquent  as  any  preservation  of  his  memory 
to  his  countrymen  could  possibly  be.  I  congratulate  you, 
Mr.  Mayor,  and  the  city  of  New  York,  for  the  grateful 
and  graceful  performance  of  a  duty  now  for  the  second 
and  third  time  of  receiving  noble  monuments  to  the 
fame  of  great  citizens  of  this  country,  and  the  acceptance 
of  permanent  and  impressive  decorations  of  our  public 
places.  And  you,  fellow-citizens,  I  congratulate  upon  the 
benignant  sky  and  the  genial  air  that  in  these  last  days 
of  November,  so  apt  to  be  the  saddest  of  the  year,  have 
for  this  occasion  given  us  the  brightness  and  the  joy  of 
opening  spring.  I  congratulate  you  more  deeply,  that 
you  and  your  children,  from  generation  to  generation, 
are  here  to  renew  the  lessons  of  patriotism  and  of  duty 


15 


which  Mr.  Webster  in  his  lifetime  taught  so  wisely  and 
so  well.  I  congratulate  you  upon  this  evidence  that 
public  spirit  does  not  fail  in  a  republic.  It  has  been 
the  reproach  of  equal  society  that  it  bred  selfishness, 
and  it  has  been  a  maxim  that  munificence  belonged  to 
kings  and  to  nobles,  and  that  splendor  and  elegance  and 
magnificence  flowed  downward,  and  could  never  be  the 
growth  of  an  equal  society ;  but  our  history  has  in  this, 
as  in  so  many  other  things,  falsified  these  maxims  of  our 
race.  Where  will  you  find  wider  and  better,  more  nu- 
merous or  more  noble,  instances  of  charity,  of  public  spirit, 
and  of  contributions  to  the  public  taste  and  public  en- 
joyment, than  this  Republic  of  ours  presents  everywhere  ? 
And  where  will  you  find  in  other  lands  instances  worthy 
to  be  recorded  with  this  of  Mr.  Burnham,  where  a 
single  citizen,  doing  his  share  as  one  of  the  people,  for 
the  good  of  the  nation,  has  made  and  planned  as  great 
and  noble  a  gift  % 

"Mr.  Mayor,  on  this  occasion  we  find  no  need  of  dis- 
tinct eulogy.    Whoever  speaks  to  any  of  our  countrymen 


> 


16 

of  Mr.  Webster,  of  his  life,  of  his  public  services,  of  his 
genius,  and  of  his  fame,  can  tell  them  nothing  new,  nor 
can  he  hope  to  enlarge  or  deepen  their  admiring  homage 
which  attended  him  through  a  whole  generation  in  his 
lifetime,  and  in  the  quarter  of  a  century  that  has  passed 
since  his  death  has  hallowed  his  memory.  Nor,  were  it 
otherwise,  would  anything  but  the  briefest  commemora- 
tion and  the  "simplest  eulogy  befit  the  occasion.  This  noble 
restoration  of  his  imposing  presence,  and  the  solemn  echo 
which  arises  in  every  mind,  of  the  last  words  which  passed 
his  lips,  L I  still  live ! ' — these  speak  to  us  to-day ;  and  all 
other  oratory  is  superfluous.  There  he  stands,  as  he 
stood  for  a  whole  lifetime  of  assured  fame,  in  the  full  blaze 
of  a  Avhole  people's  attention,  crowned  by  his  Maker  with 
glory  and  honor — as  he  stood  in  the  courts,  in  the  Senate, 
in  the  popular  assemblies,  at  the  helm  of  state,  amid  the 
crowds  that  followed  his  steps  in  every  public  concourse. 
And  yet  I  could  not  but  yield,  Mr.  Burnham,  to  your 
request  that  I  should  share  with  Mr.  Webster's  friend, 
and  our  friend,  Mr.  Winthrop,  in  bringing  to  attention  some 


17 

< 

of  the  principal  traits  of  Mr.  Webster's  character,  some 
of  the  prominent  instances  of  his  great  public  services. 

"My  first  knowledge  of  Mr.  Webster,  in  the  way  of 
personal  association  with  him,  occurred  just  as  I  was 
leaving  college,  and  he,  in  1837,  was  making  that  re- 
markable progress  from  the  Capitol  at  Washington  to  his 
home  in  the  East,  on  which  his  steps  were  delayed  in 
every  city  by  the  instant  demands  of  the  people  that 
they  should  see  him  and  that  he  should  speak  to  them. 
I  had,  as  a  schoolboy  in  Boston,  been  familiar  with  his 
person  as  that  of  the  principal  citizen  of  that  place,  but 
in  after-life  it  came  to  be  mv  fortune  to  be  associated 
with  him  in  public  relations  only  during  the  last  few 
years  of  his  life.  I  can  bear  testimony  that,  without  ar- 
rogance, yet  full  of  dignity,  he  never  sought  to  enhance, 
but  always  to  lessen,  the  imposing  influence  which  his 
mien  and  his  fame  impressed  on  every  one.  The  kindli- 
ness of  his  manner  and  his  affectionate  attention  to  every 
claim  made  upon  his  duty  or  his  favor,  none  who  knew 
him  will  ever  forget;  and  if  my  voice  now  can  for  a 


18 


moment  recall  more  nearly  than  the  general  recollection 
of  his  countrymen  might  do,  what  was  great  and  valu- 
able in  his  character  and  in  his  public  service,  it  is  an 
office  both  of  affection  and  duty  that  I  should  so  do. 

"  No  one  brings  to  his  thoughts  the  life  of  Mr.  Web- 
ster without  instantly  dwelling  upon  the  three  principal 
great  departments  of  highest  influence  in  which  he  moved, 
and  where  he  showed  his  power,  and  shed  in  a  shower 
of  beneficence  upon  his  countrymen  and  their  institutions 
the  great  effulgence  of  his  intellect  and  the  warmth  of 
his  patriotism.  I  mean,  of  course,  as  a  lawyer,  as  a 
statesman,  and  as  an  orator.  No  doubt,  in  the  history 
of  the  country,  names  can  be  recalled  which,  considered 
singly  and  simply  in  relation  to  what  makes  up  the  char- 
acter and  authority  of  the  lawyer,  may  compete  with  or 
may  surpass  Mr.  Webster.  No  one  can  divide  with 
Chief- Justice  Marshall  the  immense  power  of  judicial 
penetration  which  he  maintained  through  a  life  length- 
ened beyond  eighty  years ;  and  eminent  men  of  learning, 
of  weight,  of  authority  with  the  profession  and  with  the 


19 


public,  may  be  named  that  at  least  occupy,  in  the  simple 
character  of  lawyers,  for  learning  and  judgment,  as  ele- 
vated a  place  as  Mr.  Webster.  But  I  am  quite  sure 
that  there  is  not,  in  the  general  judgment  of  the  profes- 
sion, nor  in  the  conforming  opinion  of  his  countrymen, 
any  lawyer  that,  in  the  magnitude  of  his  causes,  in  the 
greatness  of  their  public  character,  in  the  immensity  of 
their  influence  upon  the  fortunes  of  the  country,  or  in 
the  authority  which  his  manner  of  forensic  eloquence  pro- 
duced in  courts  and  over  courts,  can  be  placed  in  the 
same  rank  with  Mr.  Webster.  As  a  statesman,  we  must 
include  in  our  mention  as  well  the  character  and  the 
part  of  the  party  leader,  as  that  of  the  guide  and  guar- 
dian of  the  public  interests  in  the  more  elevated  plane 
of  the  councils  of  the  country.  And  in  this,  whatever 
we  may  say  of  the  great  men  who,  at  the  birth  of  the 
nation  and  in  the  framing  of  the  Constitution,  and  then, 
with  lives  prolonged,  attending  the  first  steps  of  the  prog- 
ress of  the  new-born  nation,  established  their  own  fame 
and  contributed  to  the  greatness  and  the  safety  of  the 


20 

country,  we  shall  find  no  man  in  our  generation — no  man 
coming  down  to  our  generation  from  that  preceding  one 
— who  has  held  such  a  share  of  influence  in  the  popular 
assemblies,  in  the  counsels  of  the  party,  in  the  State,  or 
in  the  Senate,  or  in  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  a 
Minister  of  State,  who  can  at  all  contest  with  Mr.  W eb- 
ster  the  preeminent  position  of  the  statesman  of  the 
whole  country,  for  the  whole  country,  and  in  results 
which  the  whole  country  has  felt.  And  then,  when  we 
come  to  oratory,  he  combined  the  intellectual,  the  moral, 
and  the  personal  traits  which  make  up  that  power  in  the 
nation,  which  gave  to  one  Grecian  above  all  others  of 
his  countrymen — Pericles — the  title  of  Olympian.  Who 
so  much  in  our  time  and  in  our  nation  has  combined 
all  those  traits  so  often  severed  as  Mr.  Webster  ? 
Whether  he  lifted  his  voice,  mirum  spargens  sonant,  in 
the  court,  or  in  the  Senate,  or  at  the  hustings,  or  in  the 
oratory  of  public  occasions,  and  to  select  audiences,  he 
spoke  as  one  having  authority  with  his  people ;  and  that 
authority  was  always  recognized  and  always  obeyed. 


21 


"  To  these  three  recognized  and  familiar  departments 
of  his  preeminence  we  must  add  a  fourth — his  clear 
title  in  the  sphere  of  literature  to  be  held  as  one  of  the 
greatest  authors  and  writers  of  our  mother-tongue  that 
America  has  produced.  We  all  recognize  the  great  dis- 
tinction in  this  regard  of  Burke  and  of  Macaulay.  In 
the  flow  of  their  eloquence  as  writers,  and  in  the  splen- 
dors of  their  diction,  Mr.  Webster  did  not  approach 
them,  nor  would  he  have  desired  to  imitate  them.  But 
I  propose  to  the  most  competent  critics  of  the  nation, 
that  they  can  find  nowhere  six  octavo  volumes  of  printed 
literary  production  of  an  American,  that  contains  as 
much  noble  and  as  much  beautiful  imagery,  as  much 
warmth  of  rhetoric,  and  of  magnetic  impression  upon  the 
reader,  as  are  to  be  found  in  the  collected  writings  and 
speeches  of  Daniel  Webster. 

"But,  fellow-citizens,  as  a  citizen  and  as  a  patriot,  Mr. 
Webster  was  greatest  in  the  opinion  of  his  countrymen 
in  his  life,  and  greatest  in  the  judgment  of  posterity  since 
his  death.    What  are  all  those  mere  gifts  of  intellect, 


22 


* 


however  vast;  what  these  advantages  of  person,  of  educa- 
tion, of  position,  and  of  power  in  the  country,  if  their 
possessor  fails  or  falls  short  in  his  devotion  to  his  coun- 
try, and  in  his  service  to  the  State?  And  he  that  will 
look  through  the  preserved,  recorded  evidence  of  Mr. 
Webster's  life,  will  see  at  once  that,  from  his  youth  to 
his  death,  he  was  as  full  of  public  spirit  and  as  full  of 
public  labors,  as  if  his  life  had  not  been  busy  and  im- 
portant in  its  private,  professional,  and  personal  relations. 
He  served  the  State,  and  labored  for  and  loved  it  from 
boyhood  up.  He  withheld  no  service,  he  shrunk  from 
no  labor,  he  drew  no  nice  distinctions  as  to  opportunities 
or  occasions.  Whenever  a  word  was  to  be  spoken,  and 
could  be  usefully  spoken,  to  the  American  people,  in  the 
lecture-room,  on  the  anniversary  occasion,  in  the  public 
assemblies,  in  the  cities  and  in  the  country,  on  excursions 
and  progresses  through  large  stretches  of  our  territory, 
North  and  South,  East  and  West,  always  on  an  elevated 
stage,  and  in  a  conspicuous  cause,  he  gave  his  great 
powers  to  this  service  of  the  people. 


23 


"What  could  exceed  the  breadth  and  generosity  of 
his  views,  the  comprehensiveness,  the  nationality,  of  his 
relations  to  the  people !  Born  in  the  Northeastern  cor- 
ner of  New  England,  the  Northeastern  corner  of  the 
country,  seated  for  the  practice  of  his  profession  and  for 
his  domestic  life  in  the  city  of  Boston,  on  the  very  out- 
side rim  of  our  countrv's  territory — I  defv  any  one  to  find, 
from  the  moment  he  left  his  provincial  college  at  Dart- 
mouth, to  the  time  that  he  was  buried  on  the  shore  of 
Marshfield,  a  time  when  that  great  heart  did  not  beat, 
and  that  great  intellect  did  not  work,  for  the  service 
equally  of  all  the  American  people,  North  and  South, 
East  and  West.  We  do  not  find  all  the  great  men  of 
this  country  thus  large  and  liberal  in  the  comprehension 
of  their  public  spirit,  thus  constant  and  warm  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  patriotic  feeling.  I  cannot  even  allude  to  the 
immense  and  the  frequent  public  services  that  Mr.  Web- 
ster performed;  but  I  have  this  to  say,  that  I  would 
rather  that  the  men  and  the  youth  of  this  country  should 
read  the  peroration  of  Mr.  Webster's  speech  in  reply  to 


24 


Hayne,  and  the  peroration  of  his  speech  for  the  country 
and  its  peace  on  the  7th  of  March,  1850,  than  any  equal 
passages  in  all  the  text-books  and  all  the  oratory  of  our 
politics  from  the  time  he  died  until  now.  I  would  like 
to  have  anybody  that  has  been  instructed  by  the  last 
twenty-five  years  see  if  he  could  portray  the  evils,  the 
weaknesses,  the  woes  of  nullification  under  the  Constitu- 
tion, the  wretchedness  and  the  falsity  of  the  claims  and 
schemes  of  peaceful  secession,  better  than  Webster  could 
do  and  did  do  in  advance.  I  would  like  to  see  one 
touch  of  art,  one  word  of  eloquence,  one  proof  or  reason 
that  can  be  added  under  this  stern  teaching  of  a  quarter 
of  a  century,  that  is  not  found  in  those  great  speeches 
now.  His  countrymen  questioned  him,  his  countrymen 
maligned  him ;  but  it  was  his  country  that  he  loved, 
and  he  would  not  curse  it  for  anybody's  cursing  him. 

"  On  Boston  Common,  in  July,  1852,  just  before  his 
death,  when  he  stood  in  the  face  of  Boston  people, 
whom  he  had  served  for  thirty  years,  he  used  these 
words:  'My.  manner  of  political  life  is  known  to  you 


25 


all.  I  leave  it  to  my  country,  to  posterity,  and  to  the 
world,  to  see  whether  it  will  or  will  not  stand  the  test 
of  time  and  truth.'  Twenty-five  years  of  our  history 
have  shed  a  flood  of  light  upon  the  past,  and  emblazoned 
anew  the  records  of  Mr.  Webster's  public  life.  I  shall  • 
not  rehearse  them,  but  I  say  this  to  you,  and  I  chal- 
lenge contradiction,  that  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
that  record  is  true  to  the  great  principle  that  presided 
over  the  birth  of  the  nation,  and  found  voice  in  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  ;  that  Avas  wrought  into  the 
very  fabric  of  the  Constitution;  that  carried  us,  with 
unmutilated  territory,  and  undefiled  Constitution,  and 
unbroken  authority  of  the  Government,  through  the  sac- 
rifices and  the  terrors  and  the  woes  of  civil  war ;  that 
will  sustain  us  through  all  the  heats  and  agues  which 
attend  the  steps  of  the  nation  to  perfect  health  and 
strength.  The  great  principle  embossed  in  enduring 
granite  on  this  pedestal,  and  from  the  time  it  was  an- 
nounced from  those  eloquent  lips,  is  firmly  fixed  in  the 
consciences   and   hearts   of  this   people :   '  Liberty  and 


2<> 


union,  now  and  forever,  one  and  inseparable.'  The  great 
names  of  our  Revolutionary  history — the  signers  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  the  framers  of  the  Consti- 
tution, the  wise  men  who,  surviving  from  that  generation, 
confirmed  the  progress  of  the  country  under  its  Consti- 
tution and  its  new  liberties — no  American  will  allow 
their  fame  to  be  disparaged  or  divided ;  and  of  the  men 
that  followed  them  up  to  your  time,  how  many  do  3^011 
owe  great  obligations  to !  How  much  to  Clay  and 
Adams !  How  much  to  Jackson  and  Wright !  How 
much  to  Seward  and  Chase,  and  all  their  contemporaries ! 
But  if  I  were  to  name  two  men  whose  services  were 
incomparably  above  that  of  all  others  in  making  this 
new  experiment  of  free  government  and  of  paper  con- 
stitutions a  living  power  to  a  great  and  strenuous  nation — 
two  that  could  not  have  been  spared,  though  all  others 
remained — I  should  say  that  to  the  great  Chief-Justice 
Marshall,  and  to  the  great  forensic,  popular,  parliamentary 
defender  and  expounder  of  the  Constitution,  Daniel 
Webster,  Ave  most  owe  what  we  now  enjoy.     Who  shall 


27 

deny  to  him  the  title,  '  Of  our  constituted  liberties  the 
greatest  defender  ? ' 

"And  now,  what  shall  we  say  of  this  great  man  in 
the  personal  and  private  traits  of  his  character  ?  I  should 
say  of  Mr.  Webster  that,  if  there  were  one  single  trait 
conspicuous  in  him  and  preeminent  as  compared  with 
others  who  have  made  for  themselves  great  names  in 
history,  it  would  be  the  abundant  charity  of  his  nature. 
He  never  assumed  for  himself  in  private  intercourse,  or 
in  public  speech,  any  superiority.  He  never  tolerated  in 
his  presence,  and  he  never  practised,  either  evil  speech 
or  evil  surmise.  His  frown  followed  even  their  casual 
introduction  about  the  table  and  in  public  discussions, 
and  he  never  tolerated  any  confusion  between  intellectual 
dissection  of  an  argument  and  moral  inculpation  of  the 
reasoner.  I  do  not  know  that  one  should  question  am- 
bition, for  it  is  the  public  passion  by  which  great  public 
talents  are  made  useful  to  a  people.  But  I  will  say  of 
Mr.  Webster,  that  he  seemed  to  me  never  to  have  any 
ambition  but  that  which  is  an  inseparable  part  of  the 


28 

possession  of  great  powers  of  public  usefulness,  but  that 
which  is  sanctioned  by  the  injunction  that  great  talents 
are  not  to  be  buried  in  the  earth,  and  by  the  require- 
ment that  the  light  which  God  has  given  that  it  should 
shine  before  men  is  to  be  placed  on  a  candlestick. 

"And  now  within  the  narrower  circle,  not  ill-repre- 
sented here  in  the  crowd  before  me,  and  on  this  stand, 
of  those  who  enjoyed  close  and  friendly  intercourse  with 
Mr.  Webster;  who  knew,  better  than  the  world  knew, 
the  greatness  of  his  powers  and  the  nobleness  of  his 
nature  —  shall  we  be  guilty  of  any  disrespect  to  the 
living,  shall  it  not  be  pardoned  to  affection,'  if  we  say 
that  the  associations  with  those  who  survive  seem  to 
us  but  little,  compared  with  the  memory  of  him  whose 
friendship  we  remember,  and  whose  fame  we  rehearse? 
1  Eheu  !  quanta  minus  cum  reliquis  versari,  quam  tui  memi- 
nisse.1 " 

The  Hon.  Robert  C.  Winthkop,  of  Boston,  was  then 
introduced.     He  spoke  as  follows : 


29 


"I  am  here,  Mr.  Mayor,  fellow-countrymen,  and  friends, 
with  no  purpose  of  trespassing  very  long  on  your  atten- 
tion. I  was  doubtful  almost  to  the  last  moment  whether 
I  should  be  able  to  be  here  at  all  to-day,  and  I  am 
afraid  that  I  have  neither  yoice  nor  strength  for  many 
words  in  the  open  air. 

"  But,  indeed,  the  address  of  this  occasion  has  been 
made.  It  has  been  made  by  one  to  whom  it  was  most 
appropriately  assigned,  and  who  had  every  title  and  every 
talent  for  making  it.  It  was  peculiarly  fit  that  this 
grand  gift  to  your  magnificent  Park  should  be  acknowl- 
edged and  welcomed  by  a  citizen  of  New  York — one 
of  whom  you  are  all  justly  proud,  an  eminent  advocate 
and  jurist,  a  distinguished  statesman  and  public  speaker, 
with  the  laurels  of  the  Centennial  oration  at  Philadel- 
phia still  fresh  on  his  brow.  The  utterances  of  this  hour 
might  well  have  ended  with  him. 

"  I  could  not,  however,  find  it  in  my  heart  to  refuse 
altogether  the  repeated  and  urgent  request  of  your 
munificent  fellow-citizen,  Mr.  Burnham,  that  I  would  be 


30 

here  on  the  platform  with  Mr.  Evarts  and  himself,  to-day, 
to  witness  the  unveiling  of  this  noble  statue,  and  to  add 
a  few  words  in  commemoration  of  him  whom  it  so 
vividly  and  so  impressively  portrays. 

"Mr.  Burnham  has  done  me  the  honor  to  call  me  to 
his  assistance  on  this  occasion,  as  one  who  had  enjoyed 
some  peculiar  opportunities  for  knowing  the  illustrious 
statesman  to  whose  memory  he  is  paying  these  large 
and  sumptuous  honors.  And  it  is  true,  my  friends,  that 
my  personal  associations  with  Mr.  Webster  reach  back 
to  a  distant  day.  I  recall  him  as  a  familiar  visitor  in 
the  homes  of  more  than  one  of  those  with  whom  I  was 
most  nearly  connected,  when  I  was  but  a  schoolboy,  on 
his  first  removal  to  Boston,  in  1817.  I  recall  the  deep 
impressions  produced  on  all  who  heard  him,  and  com- 
municated to  all  who  did  not  hear  him,  by  his  great 
efforts  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  Massachusetts, 
and,  soon  afterward,  by  his  noble  discourse  at  Plymouth 
llock,  in  1820.  I  was  myself  in  the  crowd  which  gazed 
at  him,  and  listened  to  him  with  admiration,  when  he 


31 


laid  the  corner-stone  of  the  Monument  on  Bunker  Hill, 
in  presence  of  Lafayette,  in  1824.  I  was  myself  in  the 
throng  which  hung  with  rapture  on  his  lips  as  he  pro- 
nounced that  splendid  eulogy  on  Adams  and  Jefferson, 
in  Faneuil  Hall,  in  1826.  Entering  his  office  as  a  law- 
student  in  1828,  I  was  under  his  personal  tuition  during 
three  of  the  busiest  and  proudest  years  of  his  life. 
From  1840  to  1850,  I  was  associated  with  him  in  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  ;  and  I  may  be  pardoned 
for  not  forgetting  that  it  was  then  my  privilege  and  nry 
pride  to  succeed  him  in  the  Senate,  when  he  was  last 
called  into  the  Cabinet,  as  Secretary  of  State,  by  Presi- 
dent Fillmore. 

"  I  have  thus  no  excuse,  my  friends,  for  not  knowing 
something,  for  not  knowing  much,  of  Daniel  Webster. 
Of  those  who  knew  him  longer  or  better  than  I  did, 
few,  certainly,  remain  among  the  living;  and  I  could 
hardly  have  reconciled  it  with  what  is  due  to  his  mem- 
ory, or  with  what  is  due  to  my  own  position,  if  I  had 
refused — I  will  not  sav  to  bear  testimony  to  his  wonder- 


82 


ful  powers  and  his  great  public  services,  for  all  such 
testimony  would  be  as  superfluous  as  to  bear  testimony 
to  the  light  of  the  sun  in  the  skies  above  us — but  if  I 
had  declined  to  give  expression  to  the  gratification  and 
delight  with  which  the  sons  of  New  England,  and  the 
sons  of  Massachusetts  and  of  Boston  especially,  and  I, 
as  one  of  them,  cannot  fail  to  regard  this  most  signal 
commemoration  of  one,  whose  name  and  fame  were  so 
long  and  so  peculiarly  dear  to  us. 

"  Neither  Mr.  Evarts  nor  I  have  come  here  to-day, 
my  friends,  to  hold  up  Mr.  Webster — much  as  we  may 
have  admired  or  loved  him — as  one  with  whom  we  have 
always  agreed,  as  one  whose  course  we  have  uniformly 
approved,  or  in  whose  career  we  have  seen  nothing  to 
regret.  Our  testimony  is  all  the  more  trustworthy — my 
own  certainly  is — that  we  have  sometimes  differed  from 
him.  But  we  are  here  to  recognize  him  as  one  of  the 
greatest  men  our  country  has  ever  produced;  as  one  of 
the  grandest  figures  in  our  whole  national  history;  as 
one  who,  for  intellectual  power,  had  no  superior,  and 


33 


hardly  an  equal,  in  our  own  land  or  in  any  other  land, 
during  his  day  and  generation;  as  one  whose  written 
and  spoken  words,  so  fitly  embalmed  'for  a  life  beyond 
life'  in  the  six  noble  volumes  edited  by  Edward  Everett, 
are  among  the  choicest  treasures  of  our  language  and 
literature ;  and,  still  more  and  above  all,  as  one  who 
rendered  inestimable  services  to  his  country  —  at  one 
period,  vindicating  its  rights  and  preserving  its  peace 
with  foreign  nations  by  the  most  skilful  and  masterly 
diplomacy ;  at  another  period,  rescuing  its  Constitution 
from  overthrow,  and  repelling  triumphantly  the  assaults 
of  nullification  and  disunion,  by  overpowering  argument 
and  matchless  eloquence. 

"  Mr.  Webster  made  many  marvellous  manifestations 
of  himself  in  his  busy  life  of  threescore  years  and  ten. 
Convincing  arguments  in  the  courts  of  law,  brilliant  ap- 
peals to  popular  assemblies,  triumphant  speeches  in  the 
Halls  of  Legislation,  magnificent  orations  and  discourses 
of  commemoration  or  ceremony — are  thickly  scattered 
along  his  whole  career.     I  rejoice  to  remember  how 


34 


many  of  them  I  have  heard  from  his  own  lips,  and  how 
much  inspiration  and  instruction  I  have  derived  from 
them.  To  have  seen  and  heard  him  on  one  of  his  field- 
days,  was  a  privilege  which  no  one  will  undervalue  who 
ever  enjoyed  it.  There  was  a  power,  a  breadth,  a  beauty, 
a  perfection,  in  some  of  his  efforts,  when  he  was  at  his 
best,  which  distanced  all  approach  and  rendered  rivalry 
ridiculous. 

"And  if  the  style  and  tone  and  temper  of  our  polit- 
ical discussions  are  to  be  once  more  elevated,  refined, 
and  purified — and  we  all  know  how  much  room  there 
is  for  elevation  and  refinement — we  must  go  back,  for 
our  examples  and  models,  at  least  as  far  as  the  days 
of  that  great  Senatorial  Triumvirate — Clay,  Calhoun,  and 
Webster.  There  were  giants  in  those  days ;  but  none 
of  them  forgot  that,  though  'it  is  excellent  to  have  a 
giant's  strength,  it  is  tyrannous  to  use  it  like  a  giant.' 

"  Among  those  who  have  been  celebrated  as  orators 
or  public  speakers,  in  our  own  days  or  in  other  days, 
there  have  been   many  diversities  of  gifts,  and  many 


35 


diversities  of  operations.  There  have  been  those  who 
were  listened  to  wholly  for  their  intellectual  qualities, 
for  the  wit  or  the  wisdom,  the  learning  or  the  philoso- 
phy, which  characterized  their  efforts.  There  have  been 
those  whose  main  attraction  was  a  curious  felicity  and 
facility  of  illustration  and  description,  adorned  by  the 
richest  gems  which  could  be  gathered  by  historical 
research  or  classical  study.  There  have  been  those  to 
whom  the  charms  of  maimer  and  the  graces  of  elocu- 
tion and  the  melody  of  voice  were  the  all-sufficient  rec- 
ommendations to  attention  and  applause.  And  there  have 
been  those  who  owed  their  success  more  to  opportunity 
and  occasion,  to  some  stirring  theme  or  some  exciting 
emergency,  than  to  any  peculiar  attributes  of  their  own. 
But  Webster  combined  everything.  No  thoughts  more 
profound  and  weighty.  No  style  more  terse  and  telling. 
No  illustrations  more  vivid  and  clear-cut.  No  occasions 
more  august  and  momentous.  No  voice  more  deep  and 
thrilling.  No  manner  more  impressive  and  admirable. 
No  presence  so  grand  and  majestic,  as  his. 


36 


"  That  great  brain  of  his,  as  [  have  seen  it  work- 
ing, whether  in  public  debate  or  in  private  converse, 
seemed  to  me  often  like  some  mighty  machine — always 
ready  for  action,  and  almost  always  in  action,  evolving 
much  material  from  its  own  resources  and  researches, 
and  eagerly  appropriating  and  assimilating  whatever  was 
brought  within  its  reach,  producing  and  reproducing  the 
richest  fabrics  with  the  ease  and  certainty,  the  precision 
and  £he  condensing  energy,  of  a  perfect  Corliss  engine — 
such  a  one  as  many  of  us  have  just  seen  presiding  so 
magically  and  so  majestically  over  the  Exposition  at 
Philadelphia. 

"  And  he  put  his  own  crown-stamp  on  almost  every- 
thing he  uttered.  There  was  no  mistaking  one  of  Web- 
ster's great  efforts.  There  is  no  mistaking  them  now. 
They  will  be  distinguished,  in  all  time  to  come,  like 
pieces  of  old  gold  or  silver  plate,  by  an  unmistakable 
mint-mark.  He  knew,  like  the  casters  or  forgers  of 
yonder  statue,  not  only  how  to  pour  forth  burning  words 
and  blazing  thoughts,  but  so  to  blend  and  fuse  and  weld 


37 

together  his  facts  and  figures,  his  illustrations  and  argu- 
ments, his  metaphors  and  subject-matter,  as  to  bring 
them  all  out  at  last  into  one  massive  and  enduring  im- 
age of  his  own  great  mind! 

"  He  was  by  no  means  wanting  in  labor  and  study ; 
and  he  often  anticipated  the  earliest  dawn  in  his  prepa- 
rations for  an  immediate  effort.  I  remember  how  hu- 
morously he  told  me  once,  that  the  cocks  in  his  own 
yard  often  mistook  his  morning  candle  for  the  break  of 
day,  and  began  to  crow  lustily  as  he  entered  his  office, 
though  it  were  two  hours  before  sunrise.  Yet  he  fre- 
quently did  wonderful  things  off-hand;  and  one  might 
often  say  of  him,  in  the  words  of  an  old  poet : 

'His  noble  negligences  teach 
What  others'  toils  despair  to  reach.' 

"  Not  in  our  own  land,  only,  Mr.  Mayor  and  fellow- 
countrymen,  were  the  preeminent  powers  of  Mr.  Webster 
recognized  and  appreciated.     Brougham,  and  Lyndhurst, 


38 


and  the  late  Lord  Derby,  as  I  had  abundant  opportunity 
of  knowing,  were  no  underraters  of  his  intellectual  grasp 
and  grandeur.  I  remember  well,  too,  the  casual  testi- 
mony of  a  venerable  prelate  of  the  English  Church — the 
late  Dr.  Harcourt,  then  Archbishop  of  York — who  said 
to  me  thirty  years  ago  in  London  :  i  I  met  your  wonder- 
ful friend,  Mr.  Webster,  for  only  five  minutes ;  but  in 
those  five  minutes  I  learned  more  of  American  institu- 
tions, and  of  the  peculiar  working  of  the  American  Con- 
stitution, than  in  all  that  I  had  ever  heard  or  read  from 
any  or  all  other  sources.' 

"  Of  his  discourse  on  the  Second  Centennial  Anni- 
versary of  the  Landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on  Plymouth 
Rock,  John  Adams  wrote,  in  acknowledging  a  copy  of 
it,  'Mr.  Burke  is  no  longer  entitled  to  the  praise  of 
being  the  most  consummate  orator  of  modern  times.' 
And,  certainly,  from  the  date  of  that  discourse,  he  stood 
second,  as  an  orator,  to  no  one  who  spoke  the  English 
language.  But  it  is  peculiarly  and  preeminently  as  the 
expounder  and  defender  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 


39 


States,  in  January,  1830,  that  he  will  be  remembered 
and  honored  as  long  as  that  Constitution  shall  hold  a 
place  in  the  American  heart,  or  a  place  on  the  pages  of 
the  world's  history. 

"Mr.  Webster  once  said  —  and  perhaps  more  than 
once — that  there  was  not  an  article,  a  section,  a  clause, 
a  phrase,  a  word,  a  syllable,  or  even  a  comma,  of  that 
Constitution,  which  he  had  not  studied  and  pondered  in 
every  relation  and  in  every  construction  of  which  it  was 
susceptible. 

"Born  at  the  commencement  of  the  year  1782,  at 
the  very  moment  when  the  necessity  of  such  an  instru- 
ment for  preserving  our  Union,  and  making  us  a  nation, 
was  first  beginning  to  be  comprehended  and  felt  by  the 
patriots  who  had  achieved  our  independence — just  as 
they  had  fully  discovered  the  utter  insufficiency  of  the 
old  Confederation,  and  how  mere  a  rope  of  sand  it  was; 
born  in  that  very  year  in  which  the  Legislature  of  your 
own  State  of  New  York,  under  the  lead  of  your  gallant 
Philip  Schuyler,  at  the  prompting  of  your  grand  Alex- 


40 


ander  Hamilton,  was  adopting  the  very  first  resolutions 
passed  by  any  State  in  favor  of  such  an  instrument — it 
might  almost  be  said  that  the  natal  air  of  the  Constitu- 
tion was  his  own  natal  air.  He  drank  in  its  spirit  with 
his  earliest  breath,  and  seemed  born  to  comprehend,  ex- 
pound, and  defend  it.  No  Roman  schoolboy  ever  com- 
mitted to  memory  the  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables  more 
diligently  and  thoroughly  than  did  he  the  Constitution 
of  his  country.  He  had  it  by  heart  in  more  senses  of 
the  words  than  one,  and  every  part  and  particle  of  it 
seemed  only  less  precious  and  sacred  to  him  than  his 
Bible. 

"John  Adams  himself  was  not  more  truly  the  Colossus 
of  Independence  in  the  Continental  Congress  of  1776, 
than  Daniel  Webster  was  the  Colossus  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  the  Union  in  the  Federal  Congress  of  1830. 

"  For  other  speeches,  of  other  men,  it  might  perhaps 
be  claimed,  that  they  have  had  the  power  to  inflame  and 
precipitate  war — foreign  war  or  civil  war.  Of  Webster's 
great  speech,  as  a  Senator  of  Massachusetts,  in  1830 — 


41 


and  of  that  alone,  I  think — it  can  be  said,  that  it  averted 
and  postponed  civil  war  for  a  whole  generation.  Yes, 
it  repressed  the  irrepressible  conflict  itself  for  thirty 
years !  And  when  that  dire  calamity  came  upon  ns  at 
last,  though  the  voice  of  the  master  had  so  long  been 
hushed,  that  speech  still  supplied  the  most  convincing 
arguments  and  the  most  inspiring  incitements  for  a  res- 
olute defense  of  the  Union.  It  is  not  yet  exhausted. 
There  is  argument  enough,  there  is  inspiration  enough, 
in  it  still,  if  only  they  be  heeded,  to  carry  us  along,  as 
a  united  people,  at  least  for  another  century.  In  that 
speech  'he  still  lives;'  and  lives  for  the  Constitution  and 
the  Union  of  his  country. 

"  Why,  my  friends,  not  even  the  dynamite  and  r end- 
rock  and  Vulcan  powder  of  your  scientific  and  gallant 
Newton  were  more  effective  in  blasting  and  shattering 
your  Hell-Gate  reef,  and  opening  the  way  for  the  safe 
navigation  of  yonder  bay,  than  that  speech  of  Webster 
was  in  exploding  the  doctrines  of  nullification,  and  clear- 
ing the  channel  for  our  ship  of  state  to  sail  on  safely, 


42 


prosperously,  triumphantly,  whether  in  sunshine  or  in 
storm  ! 

"  Beyond  all  comparison,  it  was  the  speech  of  our 
Constitutional  Age.  1  JVil  simile  aut  secundum.1  It  was 
James  Madison,  of  Virginia,  himself,  who  said  of  it  in  a 
letter  at  the  time :  1  It  crushes  nullification,  and  must 
hasten  an  abandonment  of  secession.'  Whatever  re- 
mained to  be  done,  in  the  progress  of  events,  for  the 
repression  of  menacing  designs  or  of  overt  acts,  was 
grandly  done  by  the  resolute  patriotism  and  iron  will  of 
President  Jackson,  whose  proclamation  and  policy,  to 
that  end,  Mr.  Webster  sustained  with  all  his  might. 
They  were  the  legitimate  conclusions  of  his  own  great 
argument. 

"  Of  other  and  later  efforts  of  Mr.  Webster  I  have 
neither  time  nor  inclination  to  speak.  There  are  too 
many  coals  still  burning  beneath  the  smouldering  embers 
of  some  of  his  more  recent  controversies,  for  any  one 
to  rake  them  rashly  open  on  such  an  occasion  as  this. 
I  Avas  by  no  means  in  full  accord  with  his  memorable 


43 


7th  of  March  speech,  and  my  views  of  it  to-day  are 
precisely  what  he  knew  they  were  in  1850.  But  no 
differences  of  opinion  on  that  day,  or  on  any  other  day, 
ever  impaired  my  admiration  of  his  powers,  my  confi- 
dence in  his  patriotism,  my  earnest  wishes  for  his  pro- 
motion, nor  the  full  assurance  which  I  felt  that  he  would 
administer  the  Government  with  perfect  integrity,  as  well 
as  with  consummate  ability.  What  a  President  he  would 
have  made  for  a  Centennial  Year!  What  a  tower  of 
strength  he  would  have  been,  to  our  Constitution  and 
our  country,  in  all  the  perplexities  and  perils  through 
which  we  have  recently  passed,  and  are  still  passing ! 
1  Oh  !  for  an  hour  of  Dundee  ! ' 

"  No  one  will  pretend  that  he  was  free  from  all  in- 
firmities of  character  and  conduct,  though  they  have 
often  been  grossly  exaggerated.  Great  temptations  pro- 
verbially beset  the  pathway  of  great  powers ;  and  one 
who  can  overcome  almost  everything  else  may  some- 
times fail  of  conquering  himself.  He  never  assumed  to 
be  faultless ;   and  he  would  have  indignantly  rebuked 


44 


any  one  who  assumed  it  for  him.  We  all  know  that, 
while  he  could  master  the  great  questions  of  national 
finance,  and  was  never  weary  in  maintaining  the  im- 
portance of  upholding  the  national  credit,  he  never  cared 
quite  enough  about  his  own  finances,  or  took  particular 
pains  to  preserve  his  own  personal  credit.  We  all  know 
that  he  was  sometimes  impatient  of  differences,  and 
sometimes  arrogant  and  overbearing  toward  opponents. 
His  own  consciousness  of  surpassing  powers,  and  the 
flatteries — I  had  almost  said,  the  idolatries — of  innumer- 
able friends,  would  account  for  much  more  of  all  this 
than  he  ever  displayed.  I  have  known  him  in  all  his 
moods.  I  have  experienced  the  pain  of  his  frown,  as 
well  as  the  charms  of  his  favor.  And  I  will  acknowl- 
edge that  I  had  rather  confront  him  as  he  is  here,  to- 
day, in  bronze,  than  encounter  his  opposition  in  the 
flesh.  His  antagonism  was  tremendous.  1  Safest  he  who 
stood  aloof?  But  his  better  nature  always  asserted  itself 
in  the  end.  No  man  or  woman  or  child  could  be  more 
tender  and  affectionate. 


45 


"And  there  is  one  element  of  his  character  which 
must  never  be  forgotten.  I  mean  his  deep  religious 
faith  and  trust.  I  recall  the  delight  with  which  he  often 
conversed  on  the  Bible.  I  recall  the  delight  with  which 
he  dwelt  on  that  exquisite  prayer  of  one  of  the  old 
prophets,  repeating  it  fervently  as  a  model  of  eloquence 
and  of  devotion :  1  Although  the  fig-tree  shall  not  blossom, 
neither  shall  fruit  be  in  the  vines ;  the  labor  of  the 
olive  shall  fail,  and  the  field  shall  yield  no  meat ;  the 
flock  shall  be  cut  otf  from  the  fold,  and  there  shall  be 
no  herd  in  the  stalls :  yet  I  will  rejoice  in  the  Lord,  I 
will  joy  in  the  God  of  my  salvation.'  I  recall  his  im- 
pressive and  powerful  plea  for  the  religious  instruction 
of  the  young,  in  the  memorable  case  of  Grirard  College. 
I  have  been  with  him  on  the  most  solemn  occasions,  in 
Boston  and  at  Washington,  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
exciting  and  painful  controversies,  kneeling  by  his  side 
at  the  table  of  our  common  Master,  and  witnessing  the 
humility  and  reverence  of  his  worship.  And  who  has 
forgotten  those  last  words  which  he  ordered  to  be  in- 


46 


scribed,  and  which  are  inscribed,  on  his  tombstone  at 
Marshfield : 

"  '  Lord,  I  believe  ;  help  Thou  mine  unbelief,'  Philosophical  argu- 
ment, especially  that  drawn  from  the  vastness  of  the  universe,  in  com- 
parison with  the  apparent  insignificance  of  this  globe,  has  sometimes 
shaken  my  reason  for  the  faith  which  is  in  me ;  but  my  heart  has 
always  assured  and  reassured  me  that  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  must 
be  a  divine  reality.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  cannot  be  a  merely 
human  production.  This  belief  enters  into  the  very  depth  of  my 
conscience.     The  whole  history  of  man  proves  it. — Daniel  Webster. 

"  I  cannot  help  wishing  that  this  declaration,  in  all 
its  original  fulness,  were  engraved  on  one  of  the  sides 
of  yonder  monumental  base,  in  letters  which  all  the 
world  might  read.  Amid  all  the  perplexities  which 
modern  science,  intentionally  or  unintentionally,  is  multi- 
plying and  magnifying  around  us,  what  consolation  and 
strength  must  ever  be  found  in  such  an  expression  of 
faith  from  that  surpassing  intellect ! 


47 

"  I  congratulate  you,  my  friends,  that  your  Park  is 
to  be  permanently  adorned  with  this  grand  figure,  and 
that  the  inscription  on  its  massive  pedestal  is  to  asso- 
ciate it  forever  with  the  great  principle  of  '  Union  and 
Liberty,  one  and  inseparable.'  Nor  can  I  conclude  with- 
out saying  that,  from  all  I  have  ever  known  of  Mr. 
Webster's  feelings,  nothing  could  have  gratified  him  so 
much  as  that,  in  this  Centennial  Year,  on  this  memorable 
anniversary,  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  after  he  had 
gone  to  his  rest — when  all  the  partialities  and  prejudices, 
all  the  love  and  the  hate,  which  wait  upon  the  career 
of  living  public  men,  should  have  grown  cold  or  passed 
away — a  statue  of  himself  should  be  set  up  here,  within 
the  limits  of  your  magnificent  city,  and  amid  these 
superb  surroundings.  Quite  apart  from  those  personal 
and  domestic  ties  which  rendered  New  York  so  dear  to 
him — of  which  we  have  a  touching  reminder  in  the 
presence  of  the  venerable  lady  who  was  so  long  the 
sharer  of  his  name  and  the  ornament  of  his  home — 
quite  apart  from  all  such  considerations,  he  would  have 


48 


appreciated  such  a  tribute  as  this,  I  think,  above  all 
other  posthumous  honors. 

"  There  was  something  congenial  to  him  in  the  grand- 
eur of  this  great  commercial  metropolis.  He  loved,  in- 
deed, the  hills  and  valleys  of  New  Hampshire,  among 
which  he  was  born.  He  delighted  in  Marshheld  and 
the  shores  of  Plymouth,  where  he  was  buried.  He  was 
warmly  attached  to  Boston  and  the  people  of  Massa- 
chusetts, among  whom  he  had  lived  so  long,  and  from 
whom  he  had  so  often  received  his  commissions  as  their 
Representative  and  their  Senator  in  Congress.  But  in 
your  noble  city,  as  he  said,  he  recognized  'the  com- 
mercial capital,  not  only  of  the  United  States,  but  of 
the  whole  continent  from  the  pole  to  the  South  Sea.' 
1  The  growth  of  this  city,'  said  he,  1  and  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  are  coevals  and  contemporaries.' 
{ New  York  herself,'  he  exclaimed,  1  is  the  noblest  eulogy 
on  the  Union  of  the  States.'  He  delighted  to  remember 
that  here  Washington  was  first  inaugurated  as  President, 
and  that  here  had  been  the  abode  of  Hamilton  and 


49 

John  Jay  and  Rufus  King.  And  it  was  at  a  banquet 
given  to  him  at  3  our  own  JNiblo's  Garden,  in  1837, 
and  under  the  inspiration  of  these  associations,  that  he 
summed  up  the  whole  lesson  of  the  past  and  the  whole 
duty  of  the  future,  and  condensed  them  into  a  sentiment 
which  has  ever  since  entered  into  the  circulating  medium 
of  true  patriotism,  like  an  ingot  of  gold  with  the  im- 
press of  the  eagle :  '  One  country,  one  Constitution,  one 
destiny.' 

"Let  that  motto,  still  and  ever,  be  the  watchword 
of  the  hour,  and,  whatever  momentary  perplexities  or 
perils  may  environ  us,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  no  per- 
manent harm  can  happen  to  our  republic ! 

"In  behalf  of  my  fellow-citizens  of  New  England,  I 
thank  Mr.  Burnham  for  this  great  gift  to  your  Central 
Park;  and  I  congratulate  him  on  having  associated  his 
name  with  so  splendid  a  tribute  to  so  illustrious  a  man. 
A  New-Englander  himself,  he  long  ago  decorated  one 
of  the  chief  cities  of  his  native  State  with  a  noble  statue 


50 


of  a  venerated  father  of  the  Church  to  which  he  belongs. 
He  has  now  adorned  the  city  of  his  residence  with  this 
grand  figure  of  a  preeminent  American  statesman.  He 
has  thus  doubly  secured  for  himself  the  grateful  remem- 
brance of  all  by  whom  Religion  and  Patriotism,  Church- 
manship  and  Statesmanship,  shall  be  held  worthy  of 
commemoration  and  honor,  in  all  time  to  come." 

On  the  conclusion  of  Mr.  Winthrop's  address,  a  fine 
band  of  music,  which  had  played  before  the  ceremonies 
and  between  the  addresses,  struck  at  once  into  our 
national  airs,  while  the  cheers  of  the  assembled  multi- 
tude gave  the  appropriate  close  to  the  proceedings. 


The  celebration  of  the  event  was  fitly  completed  by 
a  brilliant  reception  and  entertainment  at  the  house  of 
Mr.  Burnham,  in  the  evening  of  the  day  of  inauguration, 
which  was  attended  by  a  large  company,  among  whom 


51 


were  many  of  the  most  eminent  persons  in  the  country, 
who  had  assembled  to  do  honor  to  the  memory  of  Mr. 
Webster. 

Upon  the  wall  opposite  the  head  of  the  table  in  the 
dining-room  hung  a  faithful  portrait  of  Mr.  Webster, 
appropriately  decorated  with  flowers,  evergreens,  and 
immortelles,  showing  below  in  a  bold  relief  of  white 
flowers  the  inscription  of  his  last  words — 

U  I     STILL  LIVE." 

And  on  a  stand  below  were  placed  additional  personal 
memorials — his  familiar  costume  of  the  blue  coat  with 
gilt  buttons  and  buff  waistcoat — the  old  Whig  colors 
which  he  always  delighted  to  honor. 


52 


APPENDIX. 


CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF  PUBLIC  PARKS. 

The  correspondence  between  Mr.  Biirnham  and  the 
Park  Commissioners,  in  which  the  site  for  the  statue 
was  finally  determined,  ended  with  the  following  letters 
communicating  the  action  of  the  Board : 

Department  of  Public  Parks, 
General  Office,  36  Union  Square,  N".  Y.,  cor.  IGtii  Street, 

October  6,  1874. 

Gordon  W.  Burnham,  Esq.,  New  York  City. 

Dear  Sir:  I  take  pleasure  in  sending  you  a  certified,  copy  of  the 
resolutions  passed  in  relation  to  the  proposed  site  for  the  statue  of 
Webster,  which  you  so  generously  propose  to  present  to  the  city  of 
New  York. 

These  resolutions  were  unanimously  passed  by  the  Commissioners, 
and  are,  in  my  judgment,  regarded  with  favor  by  the  community  at 
large. 

I  am  sure  they  will  be  respected  by  our  successors,  and  the  spot 


53 


now  selected  sacredly  held  for  the  statue  of  Webster,  until  the  artist 
selected  to  execute  the  important  work  shall  have  completed  his  labors. 


Gordon  W.  Burnham,  Esq.,  128  Fifth  Avenue. 

Sir:  The  following  resolutions  were  adopted  by  the  Board  gov- 
erning this  Department,  at  a  meeting  held  on  the  25th  September  last, 
namely : 

"Resolved,  That  the  Board  would  be  gratified  to  be  able  to  place 
a  worthy  colossal  statue,  in  bronze,  of  Daniel  Webster,  on  the  Central 
Park,  in  accordance  with  the  munificent  proposition  of  Gordon  W. 
Burnham,  Esq. 

"Resolved,  That,  pending  the  undertaking  of  Mr.  Burnham,  the  site 
at  the  junction  of  the  Middle  and  West  Drives,  south  of  the  lake,  shall 
be  reserved  against  any  other  permanent  use  or  appropriation  than  that 
proposed  by  him." 


Respectfully  yours, 


Henry  G.  Stebbins, 


President  D.  P.  P. 


Department  of  Public  Parks, 
General  Office,  36  Union  Square,  N.  Y.,  cor.  16th  Street, 

October  6,  1874. 


Yours  respectfully, 


Wm.  Irwin, 


Secretary  P.  P.  P. 


54 


Proceedings  of  the  Corporation  of  the  City  of 

New  York. 

On  November  27,  1876,  the  Board  of  Aldermen  of 
the  city  of  New  York  unanimously  adopted  the  following 
preamble  and  resolutions,  which  were  duly  presented  to 
Mr.  Burnham : 

"  Whereas,  Gordon  W.  Burniiam,  Esq.,  having  placed 
in  the  Central  Park,  at  his  own  expense,  the  colossal 
statue  in  bronze  of  Daniel  Webster,  with  the  granite 
pedestal  on  which  it  stands,  did,  on  the  25th  day  of 
November,  instant,  present  the  same  to  the  city:  now, 
therefore — 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Mayor,  Aldermen,  and  Com- 
monalty of  the  city  of  New  York,  appreciating  the  illus- 
trious character  and  services  of  the  statesman  to  whom 
this  monument  is  raised,  and  rejoicing  in  the  possession 
of  a  work  of  art  which  is  so  notable  itself,  and  which 
so  eloquently  incites  to  patriotism  and  to  devotion  to 


55 


the  Constitution,  do  now,  in  grateful  recognition  of  this 
renewed  expression  of  the  munificence  and  public  spirit 
of  an  honored  fellow-citizen,  present  their  thanks  to 
Goedox  W.  Bfexham  for  his  memorable  gift. 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Major  be,  and  hereby  is,  re- 
quested to  forward  to  Mr.  Burnham  an  engrossed 
copy  of  the  foregoing  preamble  and  resolution,  duly 
attested." 


Descriptiox  of  the  Statue. 

The  engraving  of  the  statue  which  accompanies  this 
publication  renders  it  unnecessary  to  give  any  formal  or 
technical  description.  It  was  modelled  in  Florence,  and 
cast  at  the  celebrated  foundery  in  Munich. 

The  size  and  dimensions  of  the  whole  work  are  as 
follows : 

The  foundation,  commencing  sixteen  feet  below  the 
surface,  is  laid  in  cement  upon  a  solid  rock. 


5G 


The  pedestal,  designed  by  Messrs.  Batteesojn",  Can- 
field  &  Co.,  of  Hartford,  Connecticut,  is  of  Quincy 
granite.  It  is  twenty  feet  in  height ;  a  single  stone  used 
in  its  construction  weighs  thirty-three  tons,  and  the 
whole  weight  of  the  pedestal  is  about  one  hundred  and 
twenty-five  tons. 

The  figure,  which  is  of  bronze,  is  fourteen  feet  in 
height,  and  its  weight  is  six  tons. 

The  whole  work  thus  stands  thirty-four  feet  above 
the  surface  of  the  Park. 


>  X  « 


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